Wintry Peacock

A French letter brings an uneasy marriage into view in Wintry Peacock by D. H. Lawrence. Walking through Tible on a bitter winter day, the unnamed narrator meets Mrs. Goyte, who asks him to translate a message addressed to her husband. Alfred has spent years abroad while she lives with his parents. The letter from Elise speaks of love and a newborn child, leaving the narrator to decide how much he will tell the woman waiting beside him.

Lawrence gives this short story two closely linked concerns: the handling of another person's private life and the care owed to a vulnerable creature. Mrs. Goyte's fondness for Joey, a peacock she brought from her former home, takes on weight when the narrator finds him exhausted in deep snow. The first-person voice is observant but also evasive, and the sharply drawn cold landscape keeps human discomfort close to the birds' physical distress. Readers interested in tense domestic encounters and uncertain motives have plenty to consider here.